Wednesday, February 25, 2015

February 24, 2015 (The Washington post)U.S. military combat vehicles paraded
Wednesday through an Estonian city that juts into Russia, a symbolic act that
highlighted the stakes for both sides amid the worst tensions between the West
and Russia since the Cold War. The armored personnel carriers and other U.S.
Army vehicles that rolled through the streets of Narva, a border city separated
by a narrow frontier from Russia, were a dramatic reminder of the new military
confrontation in Eastern Europe. The soldiers from the U.S. Army’s Second
Cavalry Regiment were taking part in a military parade to mark Estonia’s
Independence Day. Narva is a vulnerable border city separated by a river from
Russia. It has often been cited as a potential target for the Kremlin if
it wanted to escalate its conflict with the West onto NATO territory.

Russia has long complained bitterly
about NATO expansion, saying that the Cold War defense alliance was a major
security threat as it drew closer to Russia’s borders. The anger grew
especially passionate after the Baltic states joined in 2004, and Russian
President Vladimir Putin cited fears that Ukraine would join NATO when he
annexed the Crimean Peninsula in March last year.